Barcelona are allegedly on the brink of ending their interest in signing Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves.
Since the closing weeks of the season, it has been widely suggested that the Catalan giants intend on securing a deal for the Portugal international.
Neves himself has acknowledged that he is keen to take on a new challenge at a Champions League club, with the perception being that a switch to Camp Nou was close to being a foregone conclusion.
However, it has been no secret that the La Liga champions have mainly been interested in Neves if it offers an opportunity to complete a part-exchange deal.
Ansu Fati has been heavily linked with a transfer to Molineux without ever having any interest in departing his boyhood club for a team that finished 13th in the Premier League during 2022-23.
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While there are other players available to Wolves to complete such a transfer, the West Midlands outfit have seemingly shown no such interest, preferring to raise funds to boost their position with FFP.
Although an impasse has been reached, reports have consistently stated that a deal will eventually be processed, a feeling backed up by agent Jorge Mendes on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, despite Mendes claiming to Spanish media that everyone should "stay calm" over a lack of progress, Sport claims otherwise about Barcelona's intentions.
They are said to have informed Mendes that they are 'almost ruling out' the chance of being able to facilitate a deal for Neves before the end of August.
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Barcelona reportedly insist that they are not in a position where they can spend €30m (£25.7m) on Neves, particularly when he has never been Xavi's priority.
If the stance proves to be correct, it will come as a frustration to both Neves and Wolves at a time when it appeared that they would finally part ways.
Instead, Wolves will seemingly be left without an obvious option to cash in on Neves, who has just a year left on his contract, when they need to oversee sales to provide Julen Lopetegui with funds for his own targets.
Despite the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool being linked in the past, they have since moved on to Declan Rice and Alexis Mac Allister respectively.
Wolves and Neves may be reliant on Manchester United making an approach, yet they may have to be open to a compromise over a fee with the Red Devils now aware of what Barcelona would have needed to pay to get a deal over the line.
Darren Plant
